


Caliborn ==> Blame Jake

by twii2ted_8333335



Series: Caliborn ==> [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Friendship/Love, Humanstuck, Jealousy, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 12:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2547515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twii2ted_8333335/pseuds/twii2ted_8333335
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the one hand, there's Jake English, your crush of three years, your boyfriend of a few months after that, who had come up to you a couple weeks ago saying he wouldn't mind trying it again now that you two had grown up a bit. He sounded sincere when proposing this to you, like he genuinely wanted to try dating again. You consider it for the whole of two minutes before your big problem surfaced.</p>
<p>Because on the other hand, there's Caliborn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caliborn ==> Blame Jake

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably so OOC for Caliborn but I'm going to use the excuse that I still technically shouldn't know who he is. And the fact that I kind of built up to this?

==> Can we not be him again?

Very well, if you insist.

==> Be Dirk?

You are now Dirk Strider and you have a big problem on your hands right now. 

On the one hand, there's Jake English, your crush of three years, your boyfriend of a few months after that, who had come up to you a couple weeks ago saying he wouldn't mind trying it again now that you two had grown up a bit. He sounded sincere when proposing this to you, like he genuinely wanted to try dating again. You consider it for the whole of two minutes before your big problem surfaced.

Because on the other hand, there's Caliborn. Caliborn, who could make you laugh just by standing in triumph when he won a round of cards, or when his wits outdid yours for once. Caliborn, who clung to you like glue then tried to pry you away when you pointed out his attachment. Caliborn, who humored your shitty references and glorious irony. Caliborn, who had grown on you in the years Jake had left, in the years you'd supposedly spent growing up. Caliborn, who apparently had the biggest crush on you, according to his sister. You didn't believe her at first — yeah, there was affection beneath the "I want you dead one day" facade — but to be crushing on you? No way.

But after that two minutes of contemplating Jake's offer, you catch sight of his eyes and you realize Calliope hadn't been lying. His face was calm as could be, going through the motions of eating as Jake waits for you, but those eyes have that near desperate "don't make me watch this" glaze on them. He didn't want to hear your answer. 

So you don't give one. You tell Jake you'll think about it and get back to him when you were positive of a decision. You're still not sure if that made your problem harder or not. 

Jake doesn't approach you again, claiming to want to give you space. Caliborn doesn't speak to you either, didn't let you touch or provoke him. He shuts himself off from you, from Jane, from Roxy, from even Calliope. He withdraws so suddenly it startles all of you.

He's waiting for you to choose Jake, you realize after a day or two. He's trying to ease the pain of an unintentional rejection that hasn't even happened yet. 

And yes, perhaps last year if Jake had come up to you and said, "Hey do you want to hook up again?" you would've said yes before your heart could beat. You hadn't though; you had hesitated even before you saw Caliborn and felt your heart squeeze. 

You hesitated.

==> Be Caliborn

You can't avoid it this time. You are now Caliborn and you are adamantly ignoring the lecture your father is giving you about bucking up, being a man, and to quit pouting over your inability to woo Strider before English when you weren't even trying in the first place. You aren't trying to woo him anyway; you didn't like the loathsome bastard. When you told him this, he argued that you were still acting childish over one teenaged boy. Which you aren't. You are being completely reasonable with your pouting with Dirk going out with Jake, despite it being unofficial. You are being perfectly reasonable in trying to preserve what little you do have of a heart and emotional stability. After all, with Jake around, Dirk isn't going to have time for you and your pathetic little mind games. He'll want to be smooching his boyfriend in some far off corner of the school or be feeding him food off his plate like it's not the most intimate thing in the world. 

He won't want to play tug-of-war with you anymore. 

You are also being perfectly reasonable when you excuse yourself to your room when there's a visitor at the door because you're pretty sure it's Strider and you've had enough talk of him in the past hour to last you a week. You're being reasonable when you find out you're right and Strider is trying to get you to come out of your room so you two can properly walk and talk. 

You're being absolutely, positively reasonable when you tell him to screw off before you knock the door down and crush him with it.

And you're undoubtedly, completely reasonable when you slide down to your knees and feel tears drip down your cheeks because you've got that exhausted, drained feeling again and this mind game is one you're going to lose against him. You always were going to lose it. 

You think he's still talking but you've stopped listening. You stop listening up to the point when he walks into your room because you didn't fucking lock, and he kneels right in front of you and does that annoying "let me run my fingers through your hair and make you hate-love me even more" thing. And it works. 

He sits there with you until all your pent up emotions are cried and yelled out. You tell him how much you hate him and how you just want him to leave you alone so you can stop hurting already. You hit him and he hits back and then you get into one of those girly catfights that escalate like every other game you involve yourself in with him until he's hovering over you and panting and half laughing and you think you might be too.

And you hate him. But you love him.

"I love you too," he murmurs and it takes you a moment to realize that you had said that out loud. And now you know he's laughing because you're trying to push him away and screaming "Baka" at him in a failed attempt to cover your slip up. 

He kisses your nose though and you can feel yourself melt just from that. It's real. It's exciting. It's extremely cliche and gross and you want to punch Strider for making it like this. You do punch him in fact, for the stupid accidental love confession and the stupid jealousy love triangle and the stupid everything. 

You punch him again when you find Calliope and your father watching you two from the doorway. Your father looks a little too smug standing there, arms crossed. He wants to say I told you so but he doesn't want to break up the moment, you can tell. You can't read Calliope that well. She looks delighted and yet afraid. You don't think you blame her; you can be a little violent midtrantrum and maybe Dirk is bruising somewhere. 

You glare at them both up until Strider kisses your cheek and says he still wants to take that walk to really work things out with you. 

Calliope nods encouragingly when you glance up at her, confused and admittedly frightened by this. You've never had to do anything of this sort before. 

But you do leave with Dirk and you find it fairly easy to discuss just what you want and how much you want him. To be with him. To not see him with Jake fucking English at least, although that does slip out unintentionally. 

"You know," he says on the way home, "it's Jake's fault that we're together now." 

You contemplate this theory and ultimately decide that yes, it is his fault. If he hadn't approached Dirk last week, you'd still be in that awkward bantering and flirting stage. 

You have never been so happy to blame Jake English for something in your life.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about the semi lame ending too. I wanted this finished so I could write the next one without feeling bad.


End file.
